Anti-Frackers Say Health Review Process "Surreal"

A coalition of environmentalists and elected officials called on Governor Cuomo’s health and environmental agencies to provide more information on a health review on hydro fracking that they say has been shrouded in secrecy.

The group, which includes the Sierra Club, and Toxics Targeting, and Binghamton Mayor Matt Ryan and Ithaca Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton, , call the lack of information about the Cuomo Administration’s fracking health review process “insane” and “surreal” .

Their complaints came on the day that a panel of outside experts was to complete a review of health data of the impacts of hydro fracking that Mayor Ryan says has never been made public.

“We’re appalled at the way this process has gone forward,” Ryan said. “The most important part of this whole thing is the public’s health, and it’s almost like it’s an afterthought.”

The group is demanding that at least one more public hearing be held before a decision is made on the future of fracking in New York. And Assemblywoman Lifton says she'll continue to seek a new legislative moratorium on the gas drilling process.